Check the bridge and report 3ds Max build, scene, units, timeline, renderer.

Call this first in a session: it tells you whether Max is reachable, which scene is loaded, and what units the numbers in every other tool mean.

Execute raw MAXScript in the live Max session and return the resulting value.

This is the escape hatch for everything the structured tools do not cover. The code runs verbatim (no wrapper is added), so write a complete expression and wrap multi-statement code in ( ... ). The value of the last expression is serialized back to JSON:

Integer/Float -> number, String -> string, Point3 -> [x,y,z], Array -> array (first 2000 items), node/material/anything else -> its name.

Nothing is auto-saved and no undo block is opened for you. Wrap writes in undo "label" on ( ... ) when you want them reversible.

Args: code: MAXScript source. Multi-statement code must be wrapped in ( ). timeout_seconds: how long to wait before giving up (Max may still be busy).

Execute Python inside Max (2.7 + MaxPlus) -- a second engine, chosen explicitly.

WHEN TO USE THIS (measured on real Max 2016, see tests/bench_*):

• pure computation, string building, dict/list work: Python is 7-100x faster than MAXScript (100k loop 6 ms vs 55 ms; 5k string concat <1 ms vs 177 ms)

• scene access is the opposite: creating 200 boxes MAXScript 30 ms vs MaxPlus ~260 ms; walking 200 nodes MAXScript 1 ms vs ~2 ms. So: never drive the scene from here. Use it for logic, parsing, data shaping, or MaxPlus-only APIs, then hand the result back.

The script runs with result as the value that gets returned: result = [n.GetName() for n in ...] Set result on the last line; anything JSON-serializable works.

CAVEATS on Max 2016: Python is 2.7 and the object API is MaxPlus, which Autodesk removed in 2017 (replaced by pymxs). Code written against MaxPlus will not survive a Max upgrade, unlike MAXScript.

Args: code: Python source. Assign to result for the return value. timeout_seconds: how long to wait before giving up.

List the members a class DECLARES. Reflect instead of guessing.

Model memory about MAXScript is unreliable and version-specific -- this session alone produced six wrong assumptions (BooleanClass vs Boolean, formattedPrint format strings, getNodeByName default args, node.layer, byte[].Length, case on strings).

KNOWN BLIND SPOT: this lists only members declared on the class itself. Node-level universal properties -- name, pos, wirecolor, isHidden, isFrozen, parent, material -- are NOT in any property list, not even getPropNames, yet they work. For those, use max_check to test the expression directly. showClass "*.*" also never lists the abstract node class, so max_api_search "wirecolor" will not find them either.

Args: class_name: class to inspect, e.g. "Box", "Editable_Poly", "VRayLight". pattern: member name filter, MAXScript wildcard. "*" lists everything, "*segs" narrows to matching members (much shorter output).

Search the ENTIRE API surface of the running Max -- classes and members.

Dumps showClass "*.*" (measured: ~39,700 lines / 1.4 MB on 2016, 3.1 s; ~5.3 s on 2025) to a per-port cache, then greps it. This is the only way to answer "does this Max have VRayLight?" or "which classes expose wirecolor?" without guessing from model memory.

Answers, for example: max_api_search "wirecolor" -> every class exposing that property + type max_api_search "VRay" -> which V-Ray classes are actually installed max_api_search "Alembic" -> whether that importer exists here

Args: keyword: case-insensitive substring matched against class and member names. limit: max matches to return. refresh: rebuild the cache even if one exists (after installing plugins).

Try a list of MAXScript expressions and report which ones actually work.

This is the counterpart to max_api's blind spot. Reflection cannot tell you whether obj.wirecolor or a plugin property exists, because those are not in any property list -- but evaluation can. Run them before writing code that depends on them.

Args: expressions: MAXScript expressions to evaluate in order, e.g. ["(Box()).wirecolor", "(Box()).custom_attr", "units.SystemType"].

Search a local copy of the MAXScript Reference for a term.

Why local: Autodesk retired the 2016 documentation entirely (cloudhelp/2016 returns 404), so max_api-style reflection is the only ground truth for 2016 specifics. The 2025 reference is still published and is the closest complete prose description of the language; it is crawled into tools/docs/maxscript-2025 by tools/crawl_maxscript_docs.py.

Use this for "how do I use X" / "what are the arguments of Y". Use max_api / max_check for "does THIS Max have it" -- prose can be stale by a release, the running process cannot.

Args: query: term to look for, case-insensitive (e.g. "polyop", "getNodeByName"). limit: max matching pages. snippet_chars: characters of surrounding context per hit.

Aggregate the whole scene: class histogram, missing bitmaps, layers.

Use this to orient yourself before writing queries -- it answers "what kind of scene is this, and is anything broken" in one call.

Args: top_n: how many entries to keep in the class histogram.

List scene nodes matching a filter. Returns compact rows, not full dumps.

Row fields: name, class, layer, material, verts, faces, pos, hidden, frozen, children. Scanning stops as soon as limit rows are collected, so truncated: true means "there are more matches", not an exact total.

Args: name_pattern: MAXScript matchPattern syntax, e.g. "Box*", "SM_*_LOD0", "*". class_name: exact class filter such as "Box", "Editable_Poly", "VRayMesh". Empty = all. layer: exact layer name. Empty = all. limit: max rows to return (1-2000). offset: skip this many matches first, for paging.

Full detail for one node: transform, modifier stack, material, hierarchy, bbox.

Cheaper and safer than a max_eval for "tell me everything about this object".

Args: name: exact node name, e.g. "Box001".

Set one property on many nodes inside a single undo block.

Examples: prop="wirecolor" value=[255,0,0]; prop="name" value="SM_x"; prop="pos" value=[0,0,100]; prop="visibility" value=False.

Args: names: node names to touch. prop: property name as MAXScript sees it (getProperty/setProperty). value: number, string, bool, or 3-element list for Point3.

Create a primitive, or import geometry from disk.

kind: box | sphere | cylinder | plane | teapot | cone | torus | import size keys by kind -- box{w,l,h} sphere{r} cylinder{r,h} plane{w,l} teapot{r} cone{r,h} torus{r,r2}. For kind="import": {"path": "..."}.

Args: kind: primitive type or "import". name: node name (ignored for import). pos: [x,y,z] world position. params: size parameters, see above.

Delete nodes by name inside one undo block.

Args: names: node names to delete.

Capture the active viewport (or a quick render) and return it as an image.

Use this to verify a change actually looks right instead of inferring from coordinates. Rendering is slower (seconds) but respects camera and lights.

Args: render: False = grab the viewport framebuffer (instant); True = render the active view (honours materials and lights). width: render width when render=True. height: render height when render=True.

Import, export, or merge geometry files (FBX / OBJ / MAX).

Args: action: "import" | "export" | "merge". path: absolute file path. selected_only: export only the current selection.